“You forgot snacks earlier, didn’t you?” Frances asked.
I nodded, my mouth full so I didn’t want to talk.
“You could have asked us,” Loralie said.
I could have, but I didn’t want to. I needed to be better prepared and stop relying on other people.
“You have some trouble with Malaria?” Loralie asked.
“Not much,” I said after swallowing my bite.
Loralie looked over at the table Malaria sat at. “Really? Because she is glaring daggers at you.”
Shrugging, I ignored them all and continued eating. So much good food.
When I was finally done, my stomach was full and happy.
“You should grab some snacks, too,” Frances suggested.
I nodded and got back into line to snag some snacks. There weren’t very many snack choices, so I just grabbed the items I could keep in my backpack that wouldn’t make it gross or get coated in anything.
We walked out of the cafeteria and I ran right into Rathik, his arms wrapped around me and I looked down at his serpent tail and within two leaps was halfway across the quad. He smiled, but I could see the pinched corners of his eyes, betraying the pain I had caused by running away.
“Sorry,” he said softly and went into the cafeteria.
“You okay?” Frances asked.
I swallowed past the huge lump in my throat and nodded.
I was fine, except I had hurt his feelings again. I hated hurting his feelings.
Was it possible to get over my fear of snakes?
Would being forced to be near them help or make it worse?
I wanted to get over it. I wanted to be able to be around him even when he was in his naga form.
I would find some way to cure myself.
Some way.
Eight
FRANCES
Tsukiko was quiet through our last two classes, but it wasn’t sadness. There was a determined glint in her eyes that had me super curious.
She had jumped twice in quick succession to get away from Rathik. It was actually pretty dang impressive.
“What are we doing tonight?” I asked her.
Loralie tapped her pen against her cheek. “I need to make a list of books and see if I can find someone to buy them and deliver them discreetly to me.”
“You’re all-in on this plan, aren’t you?” Tsukiko asked.
Loralie nodded. “This could fund our trip.”
Our trip. The trip we had started planning when we were six where we would run away from our families and travel to another continent to meet some sexy single creatures overseas. We would make them fall madly in love with us and then we would return home, taking our rightful places as leaders, and the guys would show up to sweep us off our feet, proclaiming their undying love.
Yeah, okay, it was super farfetched and unlikely to happen, but we liked to dream. And if we were going to dream, we were going to dream big.
Most humans thought monsters were evil and had no love, but it was quite the opposite. While we did enjoy the darker side of magic on occasion, we also enjoyed flowers, chocolates, and guys telling us we were pretty.
Not that a guy had ever told me I was pretty, but I was sure it would happen.
Eventually.
“What in the Underworld are you thinking about that has you blushing so bad?” Tsukiko asked.
“Uh, our trip,” I admitted.
“It’s going to be amazing,” Loralie said. “We’re going to break so many hearts.”
I chuckled. “Sure we are.”
“Tomorrow night we have a prom planning meeting,” Tsukiko informed us.
I suppressed my groan, but Loralie didn’t, letting it out and rolling her eyes for added dramatics.
Tsukiko ignored her. “We are going to vote on a theme.”
A theme?
“Don’t we always have the same theme?” I asked.
Loralie nodded. “Yeah, Dancing with the Devil. And Lucifer always comes and dances with anyone who asks.”
Lucifer was one sexy fallen angel. His once white wings had turned black centuries ago, but his face was as handsome as ever.
“I wouldn’t mind dancing with him,” I said with a smirk.
Loralie smiled. “I don’t think anyone interested in males would.”
“What possible other theme is there?” I asked Tsukiko.
She picked up her History book and said, “Heaven and Hell.”
Loralie, who had been mid-drink, coughed as she swallowed her drink wrong.
My mouth dropped open and I stared at her in disbelief. “You can’t be serious?”
“Why not?” she asked, looking up at us. “Why can’t we change it up? They have done the same theme for hundreds of years. I think it’s time we do something different.”
“Lucifer is not going to come to a Heaven-themed prom,” Loralie said. “I don’t even want to go to a Heaven-themed prom. We’re Underworld creatures for the most part. We hate Heaven and those jerks that live up there.”
“Okay, then why not an earth themed dance?” She suggested.
“That might go over better,” I said, still shocked she had suggested a theme that involved Heaven at all.
“What would an earth theme have?” Loralie asked.
“Human trinkets? Flowers?” she said, but they sounded like questions instead of statements.
“So, frilly stuff?” Loralie grumbled.
Tsukiko sighed. “I don’t know. I didn’t really think you would react so negatively to a Heaven and Hell theme. It wouldn’t be just Heaven themed.”
“Kiko, we are Underworld creatures. We are shunned by not only humans, but all of the Heavenly realm. Why would you think we would want a Heaven theme?” I just couldn’t understand her logic.
“Well, because we’ve never had one,” she whispered.
“I think it might be best if we kept that one to yourself, okay?” I whispered.
She sighed and nodded. “Okay.”
“Are we going together again?” I asked.
Loralie and Tsukiko looked at each other and then at me and both shrugged.
It was my turn to sigh. “I guess we’ll just wait and see how the year goes. We have several months until the dance. If no one asks me, but you two get dates, I’ll find someone to go with.”
“We’re not going to abandon you,” Loralie said. “Rule number one.”
“No one gets left behind,” the three of us said simultaneously.
“So, who is ready for watching some creature television before bed?” Loralie asked.
Tsukiko and I raised our hands and then laughed and climbed onto Loralie’s bed, sitting side by side.
If it had been up to us, we would have shared one room, but the school refused to let us share. They insisted we all needed rooms of our own for when we became overwhelmed or wanted time alone.
The only thing was that we never wanted time alone. If something was wrong, I wanted my girls with me to cry on their shoulders and to let them cry on my shoulder.
After a couple hours of comedy, we switched to the news and I gasped.
“Another creature village was destroyed by humans today,” the reporter said, showing a village of nagas completely destroyed with fire and several bodies still lying around.